The Shadow Directive

As the tournament goes on, the party can’t help notice that certain cities are eying specific heroes to champion. The theocracy of Peloronoa seems interested in the devout Martok and Bayern Binwin, while the Democracy of F.R.A identifies with the hunter, Zealos. Meanwhile, the buisness based Avar wants to purchase the services of Cipher, and Queen Mariana of Mariasta is favoring none, choosing to back her own champions in the battle. And while these cities all want to use individual members to gain the backing of the entire party, you get the feeling that the enigmatic Legion just wants the heroes gone.

Walking along a path from Brindol, the group of adventurers are encountered by a Guard Captain, who delays them in combat long enough for his archers to incapacitate them. They are taken to an arena and forced to participate in the first rounds of what is known as the The Five Points Tournament. According to the guards there, each of the adventurers signed a contract to compete, and although the signatures are their own, they remember signing no such document.

With the exception of poor Kartenix, the party finds the captives alive, and relatively well. They manage to free all prisoners and return them to Brindol for the reward.

The group also manages to find the Treasures of Brindol’s Hall of Valor, most of them having been taken by Sinruth as trophies for himself.

Upon the defeat of Sinruth, the adventurers find a disturbing letter on him, one that hints that these attacks might not be an isolated case, and that a more sinister force is guiding events from the shadows.

Continuing on, the party fights through groups of goblins, a rune-tiled room and rescues a dwarf prisoner named Adronsius. He seems to have taken an unusual amount of beatings, which, for some reason, were inflicted because of his race.

Further into the dungeon, the party encounters a room with a strange, blue portal, showing the images of a large castle in the middle of a swamp. They managed to defeat the Ochre Jelly that came through.

The heroes then managed to locate Sertanian, who attempted to weather his captivity with dignity. He insists that his captivity was “just a few hard days” but seems to harbor an unusual amount of hatred for the goblins, even for a prisoner.

Crossing into a webbed filled room, the heroes find the corpse of Kartenix, killed by ettercaps.

They also encounter a large, tomb-filled room, with the words “Here lie the Rivenroars until the Day of the Black Sun. If you seek their monument, look at the lands around you.”

Mirtala the cook was found in a room, prepared to be a sacrifice. Nearly catatonic with fear and having contracted filth fever, she is barely able to follow her rescuers.